Adventures in London: July 2010

Sunday, July 11, 2010

"To love another person is to see the face of god." - les miserables

Yesterday was one of my favorite days so far. Some girls were going to spend the day in Oxford, but I decided to take it a little easier. I woke up and went for a long run in Hyde Park, and it was so nice to be able to take my time. Any other time I go running during the week I have to wake up extra early and rush to be back in time for breakfast and classes. I came back and did laundry and got ready. I spent a day on my own, and it was kinda exhilarating. I explored Portobello Market, and it went forever! The street is pretty thin, so you feel like you a fish in a large school of fish trying to swim up stream. I found a watch there, so now I can finally know the time. After that I headed to the grocery store, and of course I just HAD to walk into this shoe store called OFFICE, because they had a sale going on. And of course I HAD to fall in love with these shoes. So i purchased some shoes, not part of the plan, but oh well! I finished the errands and returned home to meet up with Lauren. We had plans to meet up with two good friends from home who were coming to meet us in London after their Study Abroad in Spain and backpacking through Europe. Meg and Mary Beth met us at the Peter Pan Statue and Hyde park and it was SO good to see them! We just sat and talked about their amazing experience and crazy adventures and we told them about how things were going here, and how much we have already learned. We brought them back to our place and than headed down to grab some dinner before.......LES MISERABLES!!! I had been looking forward to this night for so long, and I was not disappointed. We met up with some of roommates at the play, and we all just loved it. The play was so moving, and the talent of these people who acted in it just blew me away. I had chills for the entire show, and I didn't want it to end. Nick Jonas, a pop star from the states (a lot people had no idea who he was) was in the play. There were lots of young screaming girls.......but after the show we were able to catch one of the main actors who played Javert. He was from Florida and we snuck some pictures with him, he was so kind. We said our goodbyes to Mary Beth and Meg, and headed back home. It was a late night, because I had to stay up and write a paper, but it was so worth it! I cant believe I am already two weeks into this trip - this week went by so fast and I have a feeling it will just continue to get faster. I really want to keep on this blogging. And i will try and be better for the rest of the trip. I leave for France tomorrow and will be without a lap top.....so I will behind again. But I will have lots to say when I get back!!!!

Struggling to Keep Up

All dressed up for St. Pauls

Tower of London

Bath

View from the Tor

The Tor

Glastonbury

Roomies!

Wow it has been a long time since I blogged last - even though it feels like it was just yesterday I was blogging about my adventure at St. Pauls Cathedral. I have a lot to talk about and I honestly dont even know where to begin. I will just briefly touch on everything I have been up to. I found out my church calling and had my first day of church last week. I was called as a primary teacher in my ward. I team teach with another girl in the program named Tara, I am way glad we get to work together. Our first sunday we were sent to nursery and just took care of two young girls, but today at church Tara and I taught our fist lesson about David and Goliath. The kids are so cute, and I am so glad I have this calling and have the opportunity to serve in this ward. It has been a very humbling and spiritual experience so far. They had us bear our testimonies the first sunday, and we are already signed up for a musical number in a few weeks. There are six of us that attend that ward.

Last Friday we went on our first Day Trip. That Saturday we went to Camden Market, it was an adventure! It was very crowded and very big. I really enjoyed it though, and would love to go back. I love the atmosphere of the saturday markets, and I wish we had those at home! I crammed in some homework on Sunday and classes began. This last school week flew by! Midterms are coming up and so I feel like the professors crammed in a lot of things this week. I already had a bit of break down the first day of class, and a few girls had some this week. It is just really hard trying to balance everything. The classes are very intensive because we are so pressed for time, but as a student in this program you do not want to dedicate every second to school, you want to take advantage of the time you have here in London! So I think we are just struggling a bit figuring out how to do it ALL, but I think we will figure it out eventually.

We had a few trips this week as well, which contributed to the craziness. On Wednesday we went on a day trip and went to three different AMAZING places. Our first destination was Glastonbury, than we went to Stourhead, and than Bath. It was incredible, I saw ruins, gorgeous views of the country, and Roman ruins. I could not even believe I was there at some moments. I loved loved loved it!! On Thursday night we went to Beethoven's 9th at St. Pauls, it was cool to go back there again, and the concert was so beautiful. On Friday we went to the Tower of London. I did not really understand what this was until I went there. It served as a fortress and place for prisoners. I saw the Crowned Jewels, a place where they kept prisoners, the place they beheaded people, and King's armor. After that we went to Borough Market, a food market nearby. It was definitely an eventful week, full of many things to see. I am probably forgetting something, but Ill try and make that up with the pictures :).

Thursday, July 1, 2010

Long Days and Sleepless Nights

I think the lack of sleep is catching up to me, but I just keep running away from it. I have been up pretty late the past few nights doing homework, and this is because I keep putting it off so I can go out and enjoy the city!! Yesterday we had a tour at St. Pauls Cathedral. We got the top notch tour, it was amazing! It is one of the most amazing places I have seen. We got to see the "Harry Potter" staircase, it was so so so so pretty. The tour guides let us take pictures there, but no where else. The architecture is so amazing, the ceilings was painted with amazing detail and the stain glass windows....it was a sight for sore eyes. We had a great tour guide, but his voice sorta put me to sleep. When we were sitting down I totally passed out....not gonna lie. But I needed it if I was going to make it through the rest of the day. Part of our tour allowed us to climb to the top of the dome of the Cathedral! We climbed something like 530 stairs to get the top. The first half was not bad.....but the last few hundred freaked me out. They were windy thin medal stair cases, and I HATE heights! My hands were shaking and I was gripping the handle bar so so so hard. But I just had to keep the view in mind. We made to the top and you could see ALL of London. It was so worth the climb. You could even see the Eiffel Tower from where we were, across the channel. We stayed up there for a while and took pictures and than made our way down. Next we went to the London Museum. The Museums here are incredible. They have such cool things in their exhibits, that no one would ever have! This museums walked you through all the time periods in London. I really really loved it and want to go back. We had to go fairly quickly because some of us needed to go to the Victoria and Albert Museum for a "Field Study" for my Jane Austen class. I liked this place a lot too and would love to go back to see the fashion exhibit there, the way fashion has changed and develop in our history is so interesting to me. After that I stayed up WAY too late doing homework.....getting up this morning was hard.
Today was just classes and shopping. We went to Oxford Street, and I am sure we will be coming back. I bought a few cute things and am excited about it. We also went to an institute game night at a ward near by for the evening. Well I have a really early morning tomorrow so i better get those few hours of sleep in. Ill post some pics as soon as I can. Cheers!